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Friday, November 11, 2011

Bank of America puts hold on life insurance check and charges overdraft fees even though the life insurance company released the money to BoA

Bank of America sucks. Here is the story, my wife gave me a check to deposit into our joint account that was drawn off of the life insurance policy she received from her mother. Initially the check was deposited into an ATM machine at Bank of America, but my wife forgot to sign the front of the check. When the charges in the account were initially reversed I went and spoke with the branch manager near where I work. He advised me of what the problem was, and assured me that I would not be responsible for any overdraft fees associated with this check because of the confusion, as long as the check was redeposited once we got it back in the mail.

The check arrived back from BoA, and was signed and redeposited into a BoA ATM machine. It was immediately put on hold for 10 days. (banks love holidays, even though the rest of us have to work) This caused several overdraft fees. Sure I could add funds to cover the negative balance - but I refuse to do so, and should not have to since the money is in the account. My wife called to have the fees reversed, which they did - BUT they turned around and charged another fee the same day that they credited her for the previous overdraft fee. Since I could not reach anyone on the phone the following is what I had to deal with. No information has been changed, the conversation is completely intact - only some personal information has been removed and replaced with bold text indicating what has been removed.

Welcome to an online chat session at Bank of America. Please hold while we connect you to the next available Bank of America Online Banking Specialist. Your chat may be monitored and recorded for quality purposes. Your current wait time is approximately 0 minutes. Thank you for your patience.

Thank you for choosing Bank of America. You are now being connected to a Bank of America Online Banking Specialist.

Jennifer : Hello! Thank you for being a valued Bank of America customer! My name is Jennifer.

Jennifer : How may I assist you with your personal savings and checking accounts today?

You: i would like to know what kind of games you people are playing?

Jennifer : I regret the inconvenience whatever the concern may have caused, however, I will do my best to assist you on that.

Jennifer : Before I can go ahead, can I have your full name as on your bank statement and the last 4 digits of your account number?

You: you hold a check for over 2 weeks that was drawn off of a life insurance policy account - and are continuing to charge overdraft fees to my account when the money is in the account

You: Personal details removed

You: do not understand why i can not get past your IVR to speak with an actual person on a telephone like a civilized person either. .

Jennifer : Thank you for the information, name removed.

Jennifer : Thank you for bringing this to my attention.

Jennifer : I would like to take a moment to review your account to determine the reason behind this deposit hold.

You: what about the overdraft fees? my wife called yesterday to get them removed, only to get assessed another charge the same day.

You: unexpected? what is unexpected is that you hold this check for so long, i have never experienced anything like this before it is completely unacceptable

Jennifer : Please allow me a few moment while I check the information.

Jennifer : I apologize for the delay, please allow me a few more moment to check the information.

You: ok

Jennifer : Thank you.

Jennifer : Thank you for being with me online.

You: don't really have any other choice

Jennifer : After reviewing your account, I can see here that when the funds were deposited on 10/24/11 there was an adjustment or deposit correction made on the account.

Jennifer : I can also see that we have refunded one of the Overdraft fee that was assessed on the account.

You: right, the front of the check was not signed at that time, it was signed and redeposited.

Jennifer : The refund was processed 11/10/11.

Jennifer : Yes, you are correct, I can see that it was deposited on 11/7/11.

You: the branch manager @ branch temporarily removed said i would not be responsible for any overdraft fees associated with this check if it was redeposited

Jennifer : Right now, I can see here that there was a hold place on the deposit for $amount removed

You: what refund was processed on 11/10/11? i see only ONE refund for a previous overdraft fee... then a NEW overdraft fee

Jennifer : Your funds will be available on 11/17/11 by 9 a.m.

You: this whole experience is completely unacceptable...

Jennifer : I apologize for the inconvenience this may have caused you.

You: i still have an overdraft fee that i am not responsible for on my account and i have never heard of such a thing that a hold would be placed for so long for a deposit

Jennifer : The refund I am referring to was the one for the previous Overdraft fee and it was processed on 11/10/11

You: you people should be paying me

You: right then you just turned around and added another overdraft fee on top of that

Jennifer : I completely understand that, holds are placed on checks deposited to protect both our customers and the bank from losses in the event that a check is not honored or is returned unpaid from bank on which it is drawn.

Jennifer : The bank follows the Federal Reserve hold guidelines, which were designed to provide time for the check to reach the paying bank and to be returned in the event the check is unpaid.

Jennifer : Let me see what I can with that Overdraft fee.

You: it is a life insurance policy that is in my wifes name going into this bank of america account that she is a joint owner of - insurance company name removed has already released the funds to bank of america

Jennifer : There is no specific dollar amount that will avoid a hold.

Jennifer : The decision to delay funds availability is based on many factors, including your relationship with the bank, the length of the relationship, the combined account balances, the dollar amount, type of check being deposited and the overdraft history on the deposit account.

Jennifer : I suggest that you set up direct deposit in order to prevent holds on a check issued.

You: so you get a lot of bounced life insurance policy checks do you?

You: it is a FUCKI

You: FUCKING life insurance account

Jennifer : I regret the inconvenience this may have caused you, I will do my best to assist you on the Overdraft fee, however, for the check availability, we have to wait for the date mentioned in the system.

You: do not understand how you expect me to direct deposit funds from a life insurance policy that was stupid

Jennifer : That is one way of avoiding hold on a check deposit.

Jennifer : The decision to place a hold is based on many factors, including the account history and overall customer relationship.

Jennifer : Although there is no guarantee holds will be avoided in the future it is less likely when you:

You: i never experienced such problems with checks before

Jennifer : Have an established Account history

You: this is one of the worse experiences that i have ever had to deal with

You: i have been a customer for many years this is absurd

Jennifer : I regret the inconvenience which I understand the fees are causing and we value your business over the years.

Jennifer : Some deposit alternatives such as wire transfer can help you avoid holds with future transactions.

You: or you could just release the funds that have already been released from the account which they were drawn on - this makes on sense.. this is 2011 - everything is interconnected, not like you need to get in a horse and buggy and go to the bank where the check was drawn upon to pick the cash up

Jennifer : I apologize, I am unable to release the hold on the check.

You: look i know that you are not going to do anything about the hold, i am only waiting here to know what you are doing about these ees

You: i think that i have been more than patient

Jennifer : I double checked your account and process the refund, however, we understand things come up from time to time and during those instances we have refunded previous fees on the account.

Jennifer : I apologize, I am unable to provide additional fee refund.

You: what are you saying? i have only disputed fees that should have not been charged in the first place

You: so you are saying that you are not reversing the fee that you are responsible for?

You: hello?

Jennifer : I can understand that you are not happy about the fees. However, the fee was charged due to the recurring debit card transaction that was posted to your account.

You: and the money is in the account so what is the problem?

Jennifer : Please allow me some more moment to check the information.

You: besides the branch manager @branch temporarily removed advised me that i would not be responsible for any fees associated with overdrafts due to this check as long as it was redeposited into the account

You: you are starting to make me feel like i am wasting my time here

You: i do not know what takes so long to click a button on a computer and reverse a fee that should have never been charged

You: hello?

Jennifer : I apologize for the delay, please allow me a few more moment to check the information.

You: with all of the excuses and amount of time that you are wasting i am close to telling my wife to just cancel that check and write a new one to put into my chase account

You: what are you doing over there that is taking so long... i could have wired an entire offices network by now..

Jennifer : I apologize for the delay name removed, I am trying my best to process a refund for the Overdraft fee that was assessed to your account due to the Netflix recurring debit card charge.

You: i really do not understand what is taking so long

Jennifer : I apologize for the inconvenience this may have caused you, the system is not allowing me to process the refund as we have refunded Overdraft fees before.

Jennifer : There are several things we can do to avoid the situation in the future, like having an Overdraft Protection and Alert set-up on your account.

You: so so you are wasting my time? so how do i get these unauthorized fees removed

Jennifer : Thank you for your patience, I will be right with you.

You: i really do not have any more patience

Jennifer : I recommend that you visit the Bank of America banking center and request from the Manager if they can override the Overdraft fee that was assessed to your account.

You: i will do that when i am closing out my account

You: this whole experience is unacceptable...

Jennifer : I apologize for the inconvenience, however, we have several ways to avoid the hold and the Overdraft fee.

Jennifer : For the hold it is either you set-up a direct deposit or process a wire transfer.

Jennifer : To avoid the Overdraft fee, you can set-up an Overdraft Protection and alerts on the account.

You: i would like to put in a dispute for unauthorized charges to my account... the fees assessed to my account by your bank

You: i think you are just wasting my time because nothing is different from the time i started chatting with you until now.. and a lot of time has passed....

Jennifer : If you wish to submit a dispute for a certain transaction, we have a Specialized Claims department who will be more than willing to assist you.

Jennifer : To safeguard any personal information, please close this window, by clicking the "Close" button in the upper right corner of this chat window.

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